Choctastrophy

It was February in Omoichidou and love was all around. The birds chirped gleefully while the other animals seemed to be finding their significant others to spend the season with. There were a couple ninja that were not exactly enjoying festive air on the Byakko compound for reasons you will soon come to understand.

Kori pulled her hair up in its usual tight ponytail, fastening the apron around her waist as she waited patiently for her partner to arrive at her home. She wasn’t used to the project they were assigned to, but she had no choice in the matter since it was technically a mission.

There was a short knock on the door and Kori practically ran to answer it. Her shorter layers of hair began to break free of their binding and nestle closely to her face. Satu Byakko was waiting outside the doorway and Kori ushered him in with a grin on her face.

“Satu-san, it’s nice to see you. I have the entire preparations ready that the cookbook asked. Although, I’ve never actually made chocolate before.” Kori announced sheepishly.

“I’m sure it will fine. How hard can it be to make chocolate?” Satu replied reassuringly.

The kitchen counter was neatly organized with a saucepan, measuring cups, molding pans, cocoa powder, powdered and granulated sugar, milk, and butter.  A cookbook was set gracefully in the middle of the brightly marked packages. Kori skipped over to the cookbook and began flipping to the correct page, How to Make Valentine Chocolate.

“Okay, so this says we need to set 1 cup of water to low to medium heat.”

Satu gently reached towards the counter and grabbed the saucepan and measuring cup. Kori grinned at how diligent he was about getting the work done and how helpful he was. Most guys would have ran away from the kitchen if they were told they had to actually cook. He turned on a burner after he carefully measured the water, poured it in the saucepan, and set it on the stove.

Kori reached in the cabinet to get a small bowl, placed ¾ a cup of butter inside and placed it in the microwave for a short minute. She then placed 2 cups of cocoa powder with the softened butter.

“You can go ahead and start to mix the sugars together if you’d like.” Kori laughed as Satu stood there awkwardly waiting for a task.

“How much of each?” He questioned.

“Um, this says ½ a cup of sugar and ¼ a cup of powdered sugar.”

“Alright.”

They quickly set to their tasks, Kori mixing her concoction together and Satu setting out to find the sugars. As the lumps began to disappear in the bowl of chocolate, Kori poured the paste into the water not realizing the water was beginning to boil.

“Where is the powdered sugar?” Satu asked politely.

“Oh, did I not take it out?” Kori questioned, obviously embarrassed at her mistake. She scanned the countertop for the ingredient in question and did not see it in view. She reached down to a lower cabinet, where the sugars are usually placed to see it sitting right in front of the cabinet. Kori laughed and rubbed the back of her head, “I’m sorry. I guess I did forget to take it out.”

Kori grabbed the heavy package and accidentally let it hit the counter hard enough for the pre-opened package to burst forth air and powder through the opening in the package at the top. Kori’s face was completely white with powdered sugar and Satu was holding back a snicker although trying not to make Kori feel bad for her mistake.

“I hate sweet things…” Kori muttered, spitting profusely and wiping her tongue to rid her mouth of the sugar.

Satu wet a rag and handed it over to Kori, who was barbarically wiping away the sugar with her sleeves in anger. She slapped her forehead in embarrassment and thanked her companion for his help, beginning to wipe away the sugar with the cloth. Their distraction caused them to momentarily forget about the chocolate on the stove until an awful smell began to tickle their noses.

“Is something burning?” Satu asked.

“The chocolate!!!!” Kori screamed and rushed over to the stove to see the chocolate sticking to the sides and turning a grotesque shade of brown. She quickly yanked the pan off of the stove and set it in the sink in hopes it would stop burning the chocolate.  She just knew the chocolate was done for.